Markey Announces Run for Kerry Senate Seat

Massachusetts Rep. Edward Markey said on Thursday that he would run in the special election next year for the U.S. Senate seat expected to open with Sen. John Kerry’s nomination as Secretary of State.

Markey, 66, a Democrat who was first elected to House in 1976, is the first prominent candidate to announce a bid for the seat, The Boston Globe reports. The special election is expected to be held early next summer.

Kerry, also a Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is expected to be easily confirmed by the Senate next month to succeed Hillary Clinton as the nation’s top diplomat.

“I have decided to run for the U.S. Senate because this fight is too important,” Markey told the Globe. “There is so much at stake.”

Two state Democrats have declared their intentions for the seat — and Sen. Scott Brown, who was defeated in his bid for re-election in November, is considered the leading Republican contender.

Brown, who lost his seat to Democrat Elizabeth Warren, has not said if he will run again. He won his seat in a 2010 special election after Sen. Edward Kennedy died in office.